It’s an exciting time in your life when you’re expecting and one of the key focuses when pregnant is the nursery. While the baby won’t likely go into this room until six months old, it’s a great way to nest and get ready for the baby’s arrival.
When it comes to decorating a nursery, it’s something that you want to do properly so that it’s one less thing to think about when it comes to the arrival of your little one. You’ll be correct in thinking that you won’t have much of an opportunity to do anything else than looking after the baby.
With that being said, here are some helpful, top tips for decorating a nursery when expecting a baby.
What’s your color palette?
The opportunity to design your perfect nursery environment starts with the color palette. What are you looking to inject into the space when it comes to color, patterns, and design?
Perhaps you’re a fan of the neutrals or you want to go all out with a colorful mural wall adorned with fairytale animals and far away castles.
The color palette is going to vary from one new parent to the next, especially when putting some of your own personality in the space. For example, you might be a fan of a certain television show or animal and therefore the entirety of the color scheme is centered around this.
Do some research on color themes that are popular and take some inspiration from Pinterest boards and Instagram searches.
Keep it minimal where you can
It’s tempting to buy anything and everything when it comes to decorating a nursery. However, it’s often a case that less is more when it comes to dressing the nursery. The less you have in the space, the easier it’s going to navigate and when it comes to navigating the space in the dark, it’s better to have minimal furniture to bump into.
Keeping it minimal is something that will benefit you and your bank balance because having a baby is an investment when it comes to your finances. There will likely be certain items of furniture that you simply don’t need. For example, a changing station isn’t really considered safe, especially when it’s so high up. It’s therefore unlikely that you’d need it in the space.
The same goes for a nursing chair, especially as you’ll likely stay within your bedroom areas when feeding your baby for the first six months.
Choosing nursery furniture
There are lots of nursery furniture items that are worth getting when it comes to decorating your nursery. First and foremost, the crib is an essential purchase and this mini crib mattress is the perfect addition to the space.
With a crib, often comes a matching closet and drawer set. Of course, it’s all about the size of the space you have to work with when it comes to picking from the options.
It’s worth going for storage that’s functional in the space and is most likely going to come with it’s own storage. For a nursery and for babies in general, you can never have enough storage available. Babies come with a mountain of belongings despite the fact that they’re not that big to begin with.
Take inspiration online when looking for nursery furniture and if you’re struggling to know what to pick, then you’ll likely find yourself asking friends and family for guidance. Everyone is different when decorating their nursery but as long as you have a crib and closet, that’s the main items of furniture to have.
Provide storage
Storage is an important part of the nursery, as mentioned above. With babies, you can never have enough storage, which is why you should be looking for furniture of all types that delivers on storage. Hidden storage is also a popular option whereby the furniture masks the storage area, like a crib or sofa bed for example.
Try to get creative with your storage, especially when it comes to maximizing the walls and under furniture. With walls, you could add a load of floating shelving. There are also fabric boxes that work well for stacking on top of one another.
Everything in your nursery should have a home, so anything that doesn’t, ensure you have storage for it.
Add personal touches
Personal touches are a great addition to the space, especially as you’ll likely be filling it with more memories and keepsakes of you and your baby.
Photo frames are a great way to fill the wall space, especially if you’ve got a lot of it available. You may want to even make some little sentimental items with your crafty skills – or even lack of them!
A personal touch to your nursery makes it more personable and meaningful. It makes stepping into the room more comforting for you and your little one. While it can look beautiful to buy lots of furniture and home decor accessories for the room, it’s good to add in your personal touches.
Think with safety in mind
Safety is key when it comes to the arrival of your little bundle. You can never be too careful when decorating your nursery and making sure it meets all the safety guidance and standards. Of course, you could bubble wrap the whole room to provide safety for your baby but that’s hardly realistic.
With that in mind, it’s worth knowing what cribs and nursery furniture need to meet a certain standard.
You should also consider the placement of furniture, for example, where the crib is in relation to the windows and heaters. This is particularly important to ensure that the temperature is kept at the right level at all times. As a newborn can’t regulate their body temperature, to begin with, they’re relying on how they’re dressed and the warmth of the room.
Lighting
Lighting is an important part of decorating the nursery because the ambience of the space can be influential to how well your baby sleeps.
When it comes to lighting, it can impact the baby’s wake windows and how well they sleep within the space. Therefore, it’s good to think of the ways in which you could add lighting into the space and create low-level lighting for those occasions when you want to soothe the baby back off to sleep.
There are night lights that are worth getting, especially when you’re trying to encourage a good night’s sleep for your little ones. It’s also handy when navigating a dark room to reach your child without needing to put a bright and harsh light on.
Washable wallpaper or paint
When it comes to decorating a nursery, you want something that’s easy to manage and is kid-friendly in all aspects of the room. One way in which you can ensure it’s kid-friendly and proofed is by applying washable wallpaper or paint. This is a great way of helping keep your space clean and for the kids to have fun at the same time.
At the same time though, you shouldn’t be encouraging the kids to draw on the walls but with washable wallpaper or paint, you can simply wipe down walls when they get dirty or the kids have accidentally got something they shouldn’t, on there.
Decorating a nursery is something fun and to be enjoyed. With that being said, make sure to follow these tips and to dress up your nursery into something that’s fun and inviting. After all, you’ll only get to experience a nursery with a child once, so it should be a good one.